Actually, yes!!! I started a social network about a year ago. It had like 8 members and not a lot of content. I paid $25 for some radio advertising (online radio related to the niche) and I got 150 new members (real members) in about an hour, it crashed the server LOL that was back in my VPS days, nowa days my dedi can take a lot haha but anyways, if the forum/site is UNIQUE enough, advertising may get it going without having to worry about content.

If there is active competition present, don't waste your money until you are bigger and better

Sure, you can force visitors to check your site out (by force if desired), but if the first impression they get is negative, you pretty much wasted your money of a useless campaign whose only success could possibly be generating negative buzz. Campaigns should always feed growing momentum, not kill it.
People are not too forgiving of mistakes even after correction, and blame for the lack of content would still remain in visitors' memory.

But back at op again..

Possible to create a buzz.. lol about nothing?

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Absolutely.
Could you have been referring to trivia funnel sites, whose purpose is to essentially be shared around in place of meaningful communications on social networks/twitter? These lend themselves very well to buzz.

most of the time when someone starts a forum with no content at all, or only a tiny amount of threads, nomatter how much they advertise, people dont post. seeing "this forum has no posts" is offputting, and a lot of people might not want to bother posting new threads on a forum without any posts, because who would reply to it?

Yep, I agree on that, Organic search is very important. But I have seen some guys really make it active even with limited content. An active admin can do a lot.

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Making it active with limited content results in... good content
You and I are certainly on the same page for this... we believe an active admin can do a lot.
They can create interest in sites, write articles and be a good bartender.

It does
the thing now is about relevancy
If you're looking to build revenue, is there interest in what you got to net you advertising dollars?
Is the content you have interesting to a large number of today's consumer/readers?

Or...can you create interest in what you've got by showing how your content can be a fun part of our daily breakfast.

I sold a nice forum domain in late 2011. the guy got his forum all set up and a few people joined. he then started a contest for members. the prize was an on-topic $500 item. members had to 'like' his facebook page or link to the forum on their blogs/websites. (and post in the contest thread to enter and confirm their link or like). winner determined randomly.

IIRC, he got 4,000 new members during the six-week contest. I just checked, and he now has 24,000 members with 600,000+ posts.